The Santa Fe International Film Festival has announced the winners of this year’s juried awards, including Petr Slavík’s Waltzing Matilda for best narrative feature and JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey’s The Strike for best documentary feature.

This year marks the first time the winners of best animated short, best narrative short, and best documentary short categories are eligible for Oscar submission. The winners of those categories were LUKi and the Lights directed by Toby Cochran, Camping in Paradise directed by Eirik Tveiten, and The Quilters directed by Jenifer McShane respectively.

The 16th annual festival took place from Oct. 16-20 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, offering over $100,000 in cash and prizes for winners. By winning the narrative feature award presented by Panavision, Waltzing Matilda director Petr Slavík wins a camera package valued at $60,000 from Panavision, a post-production package from Light Iron valued at $30,000, and a $1,000 cash prize from the Santa Fe Film Institute.

Best documentary feature winners JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey of The Strike received a $1,000 cash prize, while best narrative short winner Camping in Paradise by Eirik Tveiten received a $15,000 camera package from Panavision and a $500 cash prize. Additional awards include a $500 cash prizes from the Santa Fe Film Institute for the following categories: best documentary short (“The Quilters” by Jenifer McShane); best New Mexico short (“Where the Earth Meets the Sky” directed by Rafael Salazar Moreno), and best short by an Indigenous filmmaker (“First Horse” directed by Awanui Simich-Pene).

The 2024 Santa Fe International Film Festival opened with Malcolm Washington’s The Piano Lesson and closed with Amber Sealey’s Out of My Mind. Over five days, the festival showed a selection of 184 films, including 42 narrative features, 24 documentaries, and 118 short films.

This year the festival presented its Lifetime Achievement Award for exceptional contributions to film and television to Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston, who was present during the festival. Other guests included actress Ali MacGraw, director Amber Sealey, producer Christopher Guest, actor Keith Carradine, and actress Cassidy Freeman.

Other highlights included Better Man, a documentary about Robbie Williams directed by Michael Gracey; Bird by Andrea Arnold, starring Barry Keoghan; Nickel Boys, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel; Nightbitch, directed by Marielle Heller and starring Amy Adams; A Real Pain, directed by Jesse Eisenberg who stars alongside Kieran Culkin; The Room Next Door, directed by Pedro Almodóvar with Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton; September 5, directed by Tim Fehlbaum, featuring John Magaro and Peter Sarsgaard; and Unstoppable, directed by William Goldenberg, starring Jennifer Lopez, Don Cheadle, and Michael Peña.

Also Read: In ‘Golden Hour,’ Maureen McEly’s Devastating Short Film, a Tech Company Mines Our Grief

See the full list of winners below.

2024 Santa Fe International Film Festival Winners

Best Narrative Feature Jury Award presented by Panavision

Waltzing Matilda directed by Petr Slavík

Special Jury Award Narrative Feature

The Moon is Upside Down directed by Loren Carla Taylor

Best Documentary Feature Jury Award 

The Strike directed by JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey

Special Jury Award Documentary Feature

Zurawski v. Texas directed by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault

Special Jury Award Documentary Feature

Between Goodbyes directed by Jota Mun

Academy Award® Qualifying Narrative Short Jury Award presented by Panavision

Camping in Paradise directed by Eirik Tveiten

Academy Award® Qualifying Documentary Short Jury Award

The Quilters directed by Jenifer McShane

Academy Award® Qualifying Animated Short Jury Award

LUKi and the Lights directed by Toby Cochran

Special Jury Award Narrative Short

Buscando Alma directed by Melissa Fisher

Special Jury Award Documentary Short

A Body Called Life directed by Spencer MacDonald

Special Jury Award Animated Short

One Happy Customer directed by WATTS

Experimental Short Jury Award

Make Me a Pizza directed by Talia Shea Levin

Best New Mexico Feature Jury Award

Sunlight directed by Nina Conti

Best New Mexico Short Jury Award

Where the Earth Meets the Sky directed by Rafael Salazar Moreno

Best Short by an Indigenous Director Jury Award 

First Horse directed by Awanui Simich-Pene

Audience Choice Best Narrative Feature

The Seed of the Sacred Fig directed by Mohammad Rasoulof

Audience Choice Best Documentary Feature

Mollie’s Pack directed by Thomas Winston

Audience Choice Best Short 

Jane Austen’s Period Drama directed by Julia Aks, Steve Pinder

Main Image: A still from Waltzing Matilda directed by Petr Slavík courtesy of SFIFF